######################
War and Peace
######################
Chapter: 01: Naruto
######################
Konohagakure no Sato
"In this world, wherever there is light - there are also shadows. As long as the concept of winners exists, there must also be losers. The selfish desire of wanting to maintain peace causes wars, and hatred is born to protect love."
Inquisitive golden pupil-less eyes read the lines above with a careful gaze.
"- Uchiha Madara"
The person sat there with a thoughtful look. Closing the book which was titled 'The Art of War' written by the most powerful Uchiha to ever exist, Uchiha Madara himself.
The person looked out of the window and saw that the sun had not risen yet. He stood up, moonlight striking his face, making it look even paler than it already was. Golden eyes sparkled in the moonlight with equally sparkling silver hairs. He moved with a grace not possible for any human being and put the book from where he took it.
He exited the big building like a ghost, making no sound at all and disappeared in the endless abyss of the night.
Next Day
The Shinobi Academy was bustling with activities, the new session had started for the wannabe-ninjas. Parents were saying goodbyes to their kids for the day, children were running, giggling, laughing and whatnot. Teachers were preparing for the classes. Random ninjas on the streets and rooftops allowed a small smile to creep onto their faces. Everything was normal.
In the classroom for the first year of the senior academy, golden pupil-less eyes looked outside the window. He was the sole person in the classroom but soon the classroom started to fill in and the said person started observing the people.
Soon all the seats were filled except for the two seats on his desk. He didn't mind it, it did hurt before but he was used to it by now.
The instructor came into the class and yelled to gain the children's attention. He was the same teacher who used to teach them before, Iruka Umino. He was a nice teacher who did not discriminate any student and cared for all them equally.
He took out a book from his bag, the only book which he has bought with his own money, well… it sucked to be poor but he can't do anything about it, at least not now. The book was named 'The tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja'.
The only reason he bought the book the book with his cherished money was because he could relate to the main character who had suffered in his life just like him…
"Otsutsuki Naruto!" Called out Iruka.
"Present!"
Oh well… maybe also because the main character shared his name.
The problem in the novel was that, that it was just toooooo idealistic. The main character was just too forgiving even to the one who just tried to assassinate him. That was just plain stupid!
'I don't know what Jiraiya of the Sannin was smoking while writing this!' thought Naruto.
But the story had some good points, 'Peace through co-operation and understanding.' It was something he once read in the book 'Struggles for Peace' written by Senju Hashirama. It was a fascinating way to approach peace but maybe too idealistic in their world. He didn't know what to think of it, if it was possible, then it was the best choice but he wondered if Hashirama Senju, hailed as the 'Shinobi no Kami', could not pull this off, what was the chance of anybody else doing it. Right?! These people didn't listen to the god, would they listen to a common man? Nah, not happening.
He closed the book when he heard Iruka shouting at none other than the dobe of the class, Uzumaki Natsumi. Other children were snickering and giggling at her expense.
"But I'm tellin' ya sensei, she started it first, dattebayo!" whined Natsumi.
Iruka sighed and said, "Just go to your seat and don't disturb Satsuki or anybody else while I am teaching, am I clear?" She huffed and went back to sit beside Shikamaru Nara.
Naruto's eyes wandered around the classroom and settled on the back of the last loyal Uchiha, Uchiha Satsuki. After the Uchiha Massacre which was carried out by none other than her brother and a prodigy which comes only once in a generation, Itachi Uchiha.
She was never the same after that night. He had observed her before the massacre, even then she was not an outgoing or loud girl by any means but now her eyes held a certain coldness in them and… she brooded a lot, really A LOT! It wasn't healthy to brood so much!
He could understand a part of her pain but only a part. He sometimes wondered what he would have done if he was in her place, he probably would have become insane. People literally worshipped her, girls in their class idolized her, boys swooned over her but nobody wanted to know her. Were people really this insensitive, they pitied her but it clearly angered her even more. She didn't need pity, what she needed was a friend, he could see it in her eyes. But what confused him more was the fact that she did not want to be a friend of Natsumi even when the knucklehead was the only one with no ulterior motives. She was always harsh on Natsumi. He wondered, was he wrong that she needed a friend. This girl definitely was confusing.
His eyes shifted again to the blonde knucklehead. She was an anomaly, everybody ignored her, belittled her or downright hated her but even then she will always grin like nothing bad has happened. Konoha hated her, it was a fact. He didn't know why but they hated her. Some even called her demon. He wondered, were they the one who were real demons to call a child, who was filled with so much of positive energy that you could see the energy radiate from her, a demon. People in Konoha preached The Will of Fire, even then they outright hated a child. Were these people worth protecting for the cost of your life?! He didn't know and he didn't like it a bit.
Both the girls stood out from the crowd, he could feel something in them, there was something different about them. He didn't know what but he was sure the feeling they gave him was different from other people. Maybe he was just overthinking.
He sighed.
'Why am I sighing like an old coot?!'
Riiiiinnnnnggggggggg…
The bell rang and the instructor took them to the training fields of the academy.
From this year they will start learning Shurikenjutsu. Till now they have only been taught Taijutsu, History, Mathematics and Language. The instructor gave them a tutorial of the stances for throwing shuriken and kunai. It was a different thing to just look it up in a book and another in practical. It was…hard, but he will eventually master it.
He was surprised to see that he was the one who scored the highest points. Only two of the ten shuriken were not embedded in the bull's eye.
Some of the boys were saying that it was just a fluke, he didn't pay them any mind.
He took the shurikens and started throwing them. Only one hit the bull's eye this time and some did not even hit the board.
"Ha! See, it was just a fluke!" yelled a boy. All of them started snickering and laughing.
Iruka shut them up with a yell and Naruto walked towards the crowd to let the next person do the exercise.
Naruto stood beside Shikamru who muttered a 'Troublesome'. He just smiled at the Nara Boy.
It came as no surprise when the best score was gained by Satsuki. She was a prodigy, people said. Who was he to question them?
The day went by and Naruto found himself in his apartment, if a cave can be called that. He was poor and he wasn't denying it. Well, how can a nine year old boy earn? Simple, he cannot earn. But nobody said you cannot steal. Well, they did say you should not steal. But who cares, he had to survive and he wasn't going to the orphanage. You could not sneak out of the orphanage at night and go to the library, he loved the library. And living in a cave was far more convenient for him. He could steal very easily from even the shinobis, civillians didn't even give him the thrill anymore. Life was far more interesting this way. And he didn't sleep in the cave because he spent his night at the library. He rarely ever slept, maybe once or twice in a month.
He looked at his stash of food, Ramen. Yeah, he loooooved ramen, he particularly didn't need food, he had never starved even after two weeks of eating nothing, but ramen was just too good. He would steal ramen cups of different flavours every alternate day. It was truly the food of gods!(A/N: Pun intended. Otsutsukis are gods and Naruto is an Otsutsuki. ;))
He only needed money for clothes, because he liked only the clothes made up of the finest materials. And you cannot steal costly clothes and wear them in public, you will be caught. He was speaking from experience.
At the moment he was wearing a long sleeved white shirt with a black Konoha's symbol on the back with black shinobi pants. They were made of the finest material. They were smooth yet strong. He payed a fortune after all. Well, it wasn't his money but he did made an effort to steal it, which counts. Right?!
He glanced at the mirror which he had created from plain glass by painting one side with silver, both of which he stole. It wasn't perfect but was big enough for him. After all you cannot steal this big of a mirror from a shop. So, he just looked up a book to know how to create a mirror and found an easy way. So, he stole a plain glass slab from the construction site, nobody was going to count them after all.
In the mirror he could see his form, white hairs, golden pupil-less eyes, pale skin bordering pure white, his white shirt black pants and sandals but what stood out the most were two protrusions that grew from the back of his head and wrapped around his forehead, with a small gap in-between them and a spike going upwards on each of the horns.
He used to hate these horns, other children used to bully him and call him a monster, a demon and whatnot. But now he thought of them as a part that described him, that made him different from others, they identified him! He didn't want to be just someone who lived a pathetic life and died pathetically. He wanted to become different, he wanted to be recognised like the Yondaime Hokage, to be known far and wide like the Shodaime Hokage, to be respected like the Sandaime Hokage, to be feared like Uchiha Madara and above anything else to be able to protect his home and comrades from danger even at the cost of his life like the Nidaime Hokage.
He may not like the way people did things in Konoha, but it was his home and this fact could not change. He loved his village and will do anything to protect it. Because you are supposed to protect the things you love. Right?!
'She said she protected me because she loved me…'
He exited his apartment and went towards the forest behind the Hokage Monument to practice his taijutsu katas. He had mastered the academy style and it didn't suit him. He had tried the Intercepting fist of Uchiha clan by copying stances of Satsuki but it did not suit him either, he tried Inuzuka style, Akimichi style, etc etc etc… but nothing worked until he copied some stances of Gentle fist from Hyuuga Hinata. It fitted him like butter with bread. It came to him like a second nature, it was just too easy for him. This happened a year ago. Now, he knew the real reason why it fitted him.
"Byakugan!" he muttered quietly under his breath.
He used his byakugan to spy on the Hyuuga clan members who were practicing their katas. Now, they would not notice him using byakugan from 5km away until they know that he is watching them which they certainly did not know. His Byakugan was surely superior to their's since he could see as far as he wants, chakra was the only limit but for the Hyuugas the maximum range was 50km. Heck, he had even seen the surface of the moon, believed to be 400,000km away, which was nothing but grey sand, how boring! But what interested him was that the moon was hollow at its centre, like something used to be there but no more exists there. It was different from Earth's centre which was so bright that when he looked at it he was blind for the next 2 hours! It sucked to not be able to see!
He sometimes even searched for different hidden villages, but they were just so…. Hidden! He had only located Sunagakure and Kumogakure. While he did not pay attention to Sunagakure he did watch the Raikage training with his brother every week. How did he know that whom he was watching was the Raikage and his brother? Well, he knew how the Raikage looked from a book about the Kages of the different Hidden villges and he could read lips, it was one of the things which they taught at academy and his Byakugan helped him…somewhat.
He had tried to recreate Raiton no Yoroi with very less chakra so that nobody senses him. He did sustain it for 2 seconds but that was all. More chakra was needed and he did not want ANBU running after him.
'I really need to learn some fuinjutsu man!' thought Naruto after he finished with his taijutsu training.
He started jogging towards the library. He wanted to complete the book written by the Sannin by today night. And the civilian section was good enough for reading the book until the library closed. Then he will just sneak into the Shinobi section, it was just too easy to bypass the security.
Ahhhh… just a normal day in the life of Otsutsuki Naruto.
Next day
Naruto was looking out of the same window of his classroom as yesterday but if anyone looked at him, they could clearly see the signs of annoyance on his face. Yeah, he was annoyed.
'Tch, I should have known that my life in here wouldn't be so easy. Now, what to do…what to do… maybe I should try to become the best in the class but then I will have to show more of my skills but I cannot risk being the deadlast, because if I messed up just for once I will either fail or get a crappy team. And I certainly can't become the Kunoichi of the Year! I don't want to show my skills…ugh… what to do?! Dammit!'
He tried to cool his head down by taking deep breaths. Once cooled down he thought, 'I will try for the Rookie of the Year.' And sighed. Life was just too hard. Now he will have to become the best in their year without showing much of my skills.
It was good that he came across a file that contained the information about all the previous graduates from the academy in the library. That was one fat book! But what what he noticed was that the best sensei was always given to the team with the rookie of the year, kunoichi of the year and the dead last. And Naruto was a prideful man, he wouldn't take a sensei weaker than him, now, would he?!
"Otsutsuki Naruto!" Shouted Iruka.
"Present!"
The class laughed at this.
He was confused, 'Why are they laughing, I didn't say anything fu-' then realization struck him, 'Oh I did! The attendance was taken 2 periods ago!'
"This was the 5th time I shouted for you Naruto and what you give as a response is a 'present!'. Now, answer the damn question!" shouted Iruka again.
"Ah… sorry sensei, I didn't listen the question, can you repeat it please." Said Naruto rubbing the back of his head.
A tick mark appeared on Iruka's forehead, "Out! You will stand out of the class for next 3 periods." Shouted Iruka yet again.
"Bu-" before Naruto can defend himself Iruka was by his seat, grabbed him and kicked him out of the class.
Standing in the corridor, Naruto sighed dejectedly, 'Too much for becoming Rookie of the Year.'
######################
######################
A/N: Thanks for reading the 1st chapter of my story. Be sure to post a review. Structured criticism is appreciated. Please tell me if I can improve my writing style, I would love some suggestions. If there are inconsistencies in the fic please review, I would try to solve them.
The story will gradually become more serious but some amount of humour will be there, because, well, I ain't here to take out my angst or something. I am writing this so I can share with you all the idea that I happened come across. Well, I hope you enjoy it and follow it to its end.
In the next chapter I will use the perspective of Natsumi Uzumaki and in the 3rd chapter, Satsuki Uchiha. After that, it will be all out action and game of mind and strength with humour and a touch of romance.
There will be character developments, I have some ideas for future arcs.
Mysteries surrounding Naruto will be revealed later on through different arcs. 'She' will be revealed soon as will be some of the powers of Naruto and don't worry Naruto won't be godlike from the start.
I also wanted to state that I have not seen any ninja who had a biography, surely Hashirama's and Madara's would have sold in millions. They probably would have written something for the coming generation right? But we don't see this in the cannon. Well, books are a very important source of knowledge and I have exploited this aspect in my story. You can see in this chapter that Naruto's ideals are not yet clear but are developing and books are helping him make his own philosophy. So, yeah, books will be quite important in character development in this story but not the only elemnt.
**Naruto's range for his Byakugan is limitless and is far more superior to any Hyuuga but it needs more chakra to see farther and his brain takes a lot of strain because the byakugan has359 degrees of field of view.**
And for a fact, Nidaime Hokage was the BEST HOKAGE!(Of course excluding Naruto!)
BYE BYE!
######################